Riot Previews New League of Legends Cinematics That Will Explore Runeterra

If you're a sucker for League of Legends cinematics and how they showcase different champions from around Runeterra, Riot Games has some exciting plans for you to look forward to in 2020. Announced in a video shared by Riot on Saturday that went over plans for the game's universe and how it'll be explored this year, Riot revealed that one of the ways it'll explore League's universe is through a series of cinematics called "Tales of Runeterra." These short videos will be released throughout 2020 and will show off different parts of the world and the champions that inhabit the regions.

Riot's video above titled "Universe in 2020" ended with a preview of one of these cinematics. It showed both Akali and Shen in Ionia as the two face off against an enemy together and have a conversation that explores their relationship.

Greg Street, the lead for the IP team at Riot, gave an overview of what these videos will be like.

"I want to tell you about some short videos that we're gonna release later this year that take you around different places of Runeterra," Street said. "We call them 'Tales of Runeterra,' and hopefully you will be able to see some of your favorite champions from League of Legends and favorite characters from Legends of Runeterra."

No release date was given for when the first video in the Tales of Runeterra series drop, but we know at least one of them will focus on Ionia with Shen and Akali. Other champions related to those two include Zed and Jhin as the current Zed comic has explored, so perhaps we'll see other League champions make appearances in that video as well.

The prospect of more League cinematics is a promising one considering the types of videos Riot has put out in the past. Just a few days ago, Riot released the "Warriors" cinematic to celebrate the start of the 2020 season. It featured champions like Lux, Garen, Sylas, Vi, and Urgot. This preview of the Tales of Runeterra series is particularly unique though in that the champions have voices which isn't often seen outside of the game even when cinematics like "Warriors" are released.

Riot also formally announced its next tabletop game in the "Universe" video and said that the developer will be working on even more tabletop games in the future.